Choosing surgical lighting in the LED era
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Published on: September 12, 2025
Arjan J Knulst1, Laurents P S Stassen, Cornelis A Grimbergen
1Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands. a.j.knulst@tudelft.nl
Background:
The aim of this study is to evaluate the illumination characteristics of LED lights objectively to ease the selection of surgical lighting.
Methods:
The illuminance distributions of 5 main and 4 auxiliary lights were measured in 8 clinically relevant scenarios. For each light and scenario, the maximum illuminance E(c) (klux) and the size of the light field d(10) (mm) were computed.
Results:
The results showed: that large variations for both E(c) (25-160 klux) and d(10) (109-300 mm) existed; that using auxiliary lights reduced both E(c) and d(10) by up to 80% and 30%; that with segmented lights, uneven light distributions occurred; and that with colored LED lights shadow edges on the surgical field became colored.
Conclusions:
Objective illuminance measurements show a wide variation between lights and a superiority of main over auxiliary lights. Uneven light distributions and colored shadows indicate that LED lights still need to converge to an optimal design.
